Reflection Post #2

My Thoughts on Current Educators 

    When in charge of educating other people’s children, there is a great amount of responsibility and pressure that falls on one’s shoulders. It is important to be receptive to the feedback you receive and knowledgeable of the power you hold. I believe good teachers know this information and are also unafraid to try new methods of teaching in their classrooms. A good teacher is one that is always learning; one that is green and growing, rather than ripe and rotting. Too often, our children are stuck with teachers that are ripe and rotting. These teachers are stuck in their own ways because that’s what they’ve always known, and they become defensive when they’re told their ways aren’t working anymore. Or other teachers, like the ones Delpit mentions in her writing, “only want to go on research they’ve read that other white people have written” (22). When a non-white person questions what the white teacher is doing in their classroom, or suggests a new way, it is often heard, but not listened to. This leaves people of color feeling left out of the conversation and extremely frustrated, especially when their suggestions may be on the brink of solving an issue within a classroom. There are so many ways to teach and educate children, that it is rather ignorant to assume that one way is best. White teachers hold a type of power within the school systems that has yet to be acknowledged. To acknowledge the power means admitting there is an issue. Nobody wants to be a apart of the issue, therefore it is continuously swept under the rug, and teachers of color are continuously silenced and left out of the dialogue. Acknowledging a white teacher’s power in the school system is to let go of pride and prioritize the children’s education and experience. 

 

To continue my thoughts, I have included screenshots of some notes I took while reading this text. 

Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

By: Lisa Delpit